Not much to go on, but please note the line “I live, I love, I slay and am content,” line, is a bit of a condensation of Robert E. Howard’s original:

I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom’s realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer’s Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.

UPDAE: Okay here is one of the FEW stills of Jason Momoa as Conan that has been released.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.

Rather they capture the essence of REH than Frazaetta’s visual form language. Frazetta’s contribution was being able to convey the gestures of a forgotten, brutal time in the writing. He kept things vague because so did REH on many occasions. Only punctuating on specific focal points, the rest in shadow. The best of pulp.

If the audience can feel the way many REH/Frazetta fans did when they first came across their Conan work then that would be the ultimate success. However, this teaser did none of this.

The original CONAN movie was one of the worst movies imaginable. Cheesy. God God! I got fat watching that thing there was so much cheese. I had a heart attack it was so cheesy.

Remember when the bad guy gestures for the hot girl to jump off the cliff for him? By Crom, it was bad.

The original CONAN movie is a disaster that we all strangely loved because we were kids and it was kinda soft porn and we thought swords were awesome. I don’t see any reason to remake it, but it’s not like the source material (and let’s be honest… the source material is the movie not the book) is exactly a candidate for the canon.

I agree with the Beat, the tone of the above writing is more in line with REH’s character than anything I’ve yet seen. I believe the last line is directly from one of the stories. It remains to be seen whether the film will keep this tone.

As someone who was there during Conan’s rebirth of the late 1960s/early 1970s, to “forget” Frazetta’s vision of Conan is to forget one of the big reasons the Lancer paperbacks put the “popular” in Robert E. Howard’s popular culture hero.

Frazetta’s vision was the brilliant flame that drew the fanboy moths by the tens of thousands to Conan’s world in the first place.

Had there been no Frazetta cover on that first Lancer reprint, Howard’s hero may very well have faded into the same pulpdom obscurity as hundreds of other sf/fantasy heroes.

My reaction when I saw the trailer was, “not bad, but man they needed to cast a different narrator.”

I was also struck by the single Conan line–it sounded more like something the Conan from the books/comics would say, which is an infinite step-up from Arnie’s who couldn’t speak English that well at the time. Seeing that it’s a condensed line from an actual story actually makes me more optimistic about this movie.

“Had there been no Frazetta cover on that first Lancer reprint, Howard’s hero may very well have faded into the same pulpdom obscurity as hundreds of other sf/fantasy heroes.”

While I don’t doubt Frazetta’s contribution to the Lancer’s success, I reject the notion that Howard would’ve faded away if not for the covers. For one thing, the Lancers with non-Frazetta covers sold just as well. For another, Frazetta provided covers for other heroes: Jongor, Thongor, Brak and Elak among them. Yet despite sporting magnificent Frazetta covers, they’ve faded into obscurity.

Frazetta was one of a number of factors which contributed to make the Lancers a phenomenal success, but to say Howard would’ve faded away without them is to ignore facts which contradict such a conclusion.

Robert E. Howard’s books have continued to sell, even without Frazetta’s artwork adorning them. However, to give credit where it’s due, Frazetta certainly depicted the definitive Conan visual for many readers.

Al wrote: “While I don’t doubt Frazetta’s contribution to the Lancer’s success, I reject the notion that Howard would’ve faded away if not for the covers. For one thing, the Lancers with non-Frazetta covers sold just as well. For another, Frazetta provided covers for other heroes: Jongor, Thongor, Brak and Elak among them.”

By the time the non-Frazetta Lancers saw print, Conan was already a hot item.

And the reason he was a hot item is because the Lancers with the Frazetta covers were all every fanboy I knew back then was talking about. As a matter of fact, I knew guys who ONLY read the Lancer Conans with the Frazetta covers — in fact, I was one of them.

Personally, I liked Howard’s “Almuric” — so much so that I was inspired to draw Esau Cairn squaring off against the “Dog-Heads” for the cover of “The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom” #166 — but Almuric was a “one-and-done” concept that, compared to Conan, is lost in obscurity.

The other non-Howard books you cite flopped because, well, either the stories were weak, the Frazetta covers were not very good, Conan already had cornered the market, or a combination of all three.

Keep in mind I never said Howard’s writing was not great, because it was (so much so that I never warmed up much to any non-Howard Conan material). The fact is, as far as the Lancer Conans were concerned, Howard’s writing sealed the deal. But in the late 1960s, it was Frazetta who opened the door to Howard’s world for us.

What is up with that photo? Does he actually wear that in the movie? Looks more like the Road Warrior than Conan. I mean, are those rollerblade elbow pads?!

If you want to see Conan, check out the character Crixus in SPARTACUS: GODS OF THE ARENA, before he gets a haircut. Now, that’s what Conan should look like!

BTW: the original Arnold CONAN is a friggin’ classic. Everything that is cheesy or goofy about it only makes it more enjoyable. Like FLASH GORDON, it is that rare film where the lead actor’s inability to act only makes the film better.

Tony, I think that pic is from the tv series the actor starred in, not the film. He doesn’t have the facial hair or dreads in the film either. The actor actually gained some muscle and is quite taller than Arnold.
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A minor sword geek detail: In the Arnold CONAN film, they gave him Japanese sword lessons, but the sword he wields isn’t made for those cutting movements. A sword design dictates the way the weapon is to be used. Unless, of course we assume Conan does not know how to use a real sword.